UpGuard Analyzes Security of Top Dating Sites

February 16, 2016

3:00 pm

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There’s some personal information that likely causes you to pause before blindly typing it into a website. You’re probably not going to throw your Social Security number all over the internet, and for good reason. But most dating apps don’t ask for this kind of information, mostly so you can maintain some semblance of anonymity until you’ve had the chance to vet some people, so you might think your identity is more secure. However, just because your credit card number isn’t on your Tinder profile, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a secure site.

Upguard, a company that helps assess website security and the potential for a breach, has completed an evaluation – using their Upguard Website Risk Grader – on the security of the top dating sites. The Grader looks at externally accessible security factors such as whether SSL is enabled, whether cookies are secure, and a other data points to determine the relative security of a site from an external viewpoint.

UpGuard scores sites on a scale of 0-950, with 950 being the most secure (similar to credit card scores). If a site’s score is low, it suggests that several standard security measures are probably not in place or may not be configured correctly. A high score means the site’s administrators have given thought to web security and may be taking steps to keep your data as private as reasonably possible.

The results of this evaluation were interesting. For example, in light of the highly publicized Ashley Madison hack over the summer, the site scored the highest, at 789. Of course, this site was graded after the breach, so its quite likely that they have significantly beefed up their data security in recent months. Additionally, if the Ashley Madison hack was an inside job, like it is thought to be, this external web scan would not pick up on any internal weaknesses.

Top Scorers Included:

DateMySchool (779)

OkCupid (779)

Gleeden (779)

Zoosk (751)

Match.com (741)

Lowest Scorers Included:

Lovestruck.com (494)

Tastebuds.fm (494)

Adult FriendFinder (456)

Compatible Partners (456)

GayRomeo (456)

Matchmaker.com (456)

AnastasiaDate (409)

Gaydar (409)

Passions Network (409)

Tawkify (380)

PlentyofFish (361)

It should be noted that horrible name choice did not play a factor in the scoring (I’m looking at you Passions Network). You can check out the entire list here.

UpGuard’s free Website Risk Grader scans only for external security precautions, so it’s really only scoring based on half of the picture in this case. However, Upguard does offer scanning of internal systems vulnerabilities, regulatory compliances, and a site’s overall integrity for 3,000+ companies – but that’s not reflected in this external score.

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Kristin is an aspiring entrepreneur who is enthusiastically navigating her way through the DC startup space. She has an unending passion for learning and is never satisfied with the status quo. During the day she is an ops, biz dev, and marketing maven for Fission Strategy